Circadian Design now taking pre-orders for Round Refill medication delivery service with smart bottle

Targets $289 billion annual cost to US healthcare system.

Round Refill is a premium medication reminder system that helps people be better about taking their pills day-to-day and refill-to-refill. It’s the first pharmacy delivery service integrated with a smart bottle and app. The bottle lights up to remind users when to take their medication and tracks how many pills are left so refills are delivered to the home only when needed.

“Whether you are a senior citizen or a kid just out of college, there is nothing easy about navigating the healthcare system,” said Circadian Design CEO and Co-Founder Matt Blum. “Many people would rather do laundry than take medications prescribed to them. Thus the mission of Circadian Design is to make people happier and healthier through a foolproof customer experience that’s easy and well-designed.”

Nearly half of the US population – over 160 million people – is prescribed to take one or more drug per year by their doctor, according the National Center for Health Statistics. But research published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicates more than half of those people do not follow their doctor’s instructions and take medications incorrectly or skip them entirely. Adherence is not just a senior moment: a recent study by HealthPrize Technologies LLC reported 60% of Millennials on medication for a chronic condition admitted to not taking their medication as prescribed.

Non-adherence is a big issue because of the obvious poor health outcomes. Medications don’t work if patients don’t take them. For example, according to an article published in the journal Medical Care, people with high blood pressure are 42% more likely to develop chronic heart failure if they don't adhere to their antihypertensive.

“Medication adherence is a tremendous problem that costs the US healthcare system billions of dollars every year,” said Circadian Design Investor Max Levchin. “Besides the simple convenience Round Refill affords, Circadian’s team has the unique experience in hardware and design to launch an elegant solution that we believe will have a far-reaching impact on the adherence problem for many years to come.”

Round Bottle comprises two parts: the smart coin, which users hold onto for years, and the refill bottle, which users receive new every month. The refill bottle comes loaded with the medication and a fresh battery inside, so that users never have to charge the smart coin. When one bottle runs out, users simply pop their smart coin into the new refill bottle that was delivered to their doorstep.

Compared to typical phone alarms, Round’s daily reminders are even more accommodating to users’ busy lives, and, as a result, are more effective. Rather than discrete alarms, with Round users set reminder windows during which they’d like to receive gentle reminders to take their medication. In addition to Round app notifications, Round Bottle lights up to remind users to take their pills. Each time the bottle is opened, it is automatically logged to the app via Bluetooth. In the app, users can check to see if they took their medication and look back at their history and performance.